Directors

Dr. Michael Samson is EPRI’s Director of Research. He has 25 years’ experience working in social protection, and specialises in designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating social cash transfer programmes. He has recently completed policy design projects for social assistance programmes in Malawi, Lesotho, Senegal, Ghana, Rwanda and Kenya, and is currently working on social protection projects in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mozambique, Nepal, the Pacific, South Africa and Uganda. Michael co-ordinates and co-leads the team implementing the impact assessment of the Child Support Grant in South Africa, and has completed previous evaluations of social grants in South Africa and an impact assessment in Mozambique. In 2009 he organised a workshop in Nairobi, Kenya on open source management information systems for social cash transfer programmes.He lectures at policy conferences and training workshops in around the world. He is also a Visiting Associate Professor of Economics at the Williams College Center for Development Economics in the United States.

Ms. Ingrid van Niekerk is an Executive Co-Director and Senior Researcher at EPRI, as well as the Chief Executive Officer. She has managed and carried out research projects for the Department of Social Development in South Africa as well as the inter-ministerial Committee of Enquiry for Comprehensive Social Security. She is responsible for EPRI’s capacity building programme for government departments, and her teaching has included courses for the Department of Social Development. She has extensive in-country experience in South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Nepal and Bolivia, amongst other countries. She lectures in the Parliamentary Capacity Building Programme in Economic Policy as well as at the University of the Western Cape. She has recently worked on projects for the 2005 Cabinet Lekgotla, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Inter-regional Inequality Facility, and civil society institutions. She is an Associate Member in the Department of Social Policy at Oxford University.

Mr. Kenneth Mac Quene is an Executive Co-Director and Senior Researcher at EPRI. He serves as the Institution’s Chief Financial Officer. He has participated in research projects for the Department of Social Development in South Africa as well as the inter-ministerial Committee of Enquiry for Comprehensive Social Security. He also directs the Parliamentary Capacity Building Programme in Economic Policy. His in-country experience includes South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and Uganda. He has recently worked on projects for the 2005 Cabinet Lekgotla, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Inter-regional Inequality Facility and civil society institutions. He also lectures at the University of the Western Cape. He is an Associate Member in the Department of Social Policy at Oxford University.